Sri Lanka

Providing eye care to the rural villagers

November 2012 │ Sri Lanka

On November 17, 22 Deutsche Bank volunteers started their journey at 5.00am to the town of Nawalapitiya, some 120 kilometres away from Colombo, to assist in an eye camp. The group arrived at their destination at 9.00am, where the eye camp began after a short opening ceremony.

The project organisers had chosen a school in the town which was easily accessible and convenient to the villagers. The organisers had also done an excellent job in mobilising their field officers within a very short time to pre-register approximately 700 patients from remote villages.

Six qualified opticians who travelled from Colombo were ably assisted by our volunteers who did a commendable job in crowd management, writing prescriptions, providing the villagers with refreshments and first aid. Due to the inclement weather during the eye camp, some of the villagers could not attend the camp as they were travelling from remote areas. A total of 475 patients were screened for sight deficiencies.

The spectacles will be dispatched to them later in the month for further distribution which would help their quality of life tremendously.